1/06/2016

If there's a bad guy role that needs to be filled, one actor who is nearly always on the must-call list is Ben Mendelsohn. That's what happens when you're as effectively creepy as he was in Animal Kingdom. His next villain turn could be coming in the next film by Steven Spielberg, the eagerly-anticipated adaptation of Ernest Cline's pop culture-heavy novel, Ready Player One.

According to Variety, Mendelsohn is in talks to join Olivia Cooke in the film which features a script by The Avengers and X-Men: The Last Stand writer, Zak Penn. Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) is one of the actors testing for the lead role of protagonist Wade Owen Watts, whose avatar Parzival exists in the virtual reality world of Oasis which has taken on a greater value than the real world.

Spielberg will begin production on Ready Player One soon in time for release on December 15th 2017. Mendelsohn is currently shooting Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in which he plays, wait for it, the bad guy.